Cornyn’s high-profile border security amendment shot down in favor of new Gang of Eight compromise

After weeks of aggressive campaigning on the chamber floor, Sen. John Cornyn saw his high-profile border security amendment shelved in favor of a new Gang of Eight-backed compromise.

Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid motioned to table Cornyn’s RESULTS amendment with the support of Vermont Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy in efforts to move forward with the 250 amendments to comprehensive immigration reform currently under consideration. The motion was approved 54-43.

Leading the Republican thrust for tougher border enforcement, Cornyn’s controversial amendment would have required 100 percent operational control of the Southwest border before immigrants could be granted Regional Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status.

Instead, GOP Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Bob Corker of Tennessee and John Hoeven of North Dakota are drafting a new border security compromise – without the input of Cornyn or Sen. Ted Cruz — that Reid said was still being finalized by legislative counsel.

Reid has called the Cornyn amendment a “poison pill” to the progress of the bill, but Cornyn has countered that it is instead an “antidote” to the legislation because the Gang of Eight proposal as it stands would be “dead on arrival” in the House. House Republicans have also called for beefed-up border enforcement, and Speaker John Boehner vowed to only bring a bill to the floor that was supported by a majority of Republicans.

Though Gang of Eight legislators Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. Jeff Flake had previously said they were open to the provisions outlined in the RESULTS amendment, they voted to table the piece of legislation. Notably, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio voted to keep the amendment alive.

Though it was expected to fail, Cornyn returned to the Senate floor this afternoon to defend his amendment one final time, demanding that it “must pass.”

Leahy said some of the border security underpinnings of Cornyn’s amendment are valid, but “most of it is bad” in that it “imposes unrealistic triggers” that make the pathway to citizenship elusive.

Leahy added that he cannot support expending billions of additional taxpayer dollars on the provisions delineated in Cornyn’s amendment, which Cornyn has repeatedly identified as a false criticism. Cornyn said the amendment would have simply reallocated parts of the $6.5 billion appropriated in the Gang of Eight bill.

The Senate has voted on 11 amendments so far, approving three yesterday.